1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a structure of a water sprinkling apparatus which is employed in an ice making machine such as a water flow-down type ice making machine for supplying raw water consumed in making ice (this water will hereinafter be referred to as "icing water" only for convenience of description) as well as water for removing or extracting ice pellets or cubes as formed (this water will hereinafter be referred to as "deicing water" only for convenience of description).
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, in a water flow-down type ice making machine, a pair of ice making plates are vertically disposed in a back-to-back opposite relation, wherein a refrigerating pipe (i.e., evaporator in which a coolant is evaporated) is mounted in a state sandwiched between back or rear surfaces of the pair of ice making plates. More specifically, the refrigerating pipe is disposed in intimate contact with the rear surfaces of the ice making plates for cooling icing water strewed from a water sprinkling apparatus disposed above the ice making plates and flowing downwardly along front or exposed surfaces of the ice making plates in the ice making operation.
In the ice extracting operation which follows the ice making operation, a hot gas (high-temperature gas not condensated) is forced to flow through the refrigerating pipe to heat the ice making plates for melting the ice pellets as formed at the surfaces adhering to the ice making plates. Thus, the ice pellets are separated from the ice making plates to be discharged outwardly. Since most of the hot gases used to this end are of relatively small thermal capacity, deicing water for promoting the melting and separation or detachment of ice pellets is generally caused to flow between the rear surfaces of the pair of ice making plates. To this end, the water sprinkling apparatus disposed above the ice making plates is also provided with a water passage and water strewing holes which are to be used to flow deicing water in the deicing operation. In other words, the water sprinkling apparatus for the water flow-down type ice making machine is realized in the form of an assembly of an icing water sprinkler and a deicing water sprinkler.
The icing water sprinkler constitutes a part of a water supply loop for circulating water between a water tank and a water collector disposed below the ice making plates and serves to strew a relatively large amount of water on the front surfaces of the pair of ice making plates, while the deicing water sprinkler is adapted to strew a relatively small amount of tap water between the rear surfaces of the ice making plates. For this reason, the icing water sprinkler and the deicing water sprinkler are implemented in the structures suited for realizing the respective functions. In an ice making machine in which the water strewing holes of the icing water sprinkler and those of the deicing water sprinkler are at a same level (or height), there are adopted some specific measures for allowing water as strewed from the icing water sprinkler or the deicing water sprinkler to be properly directed to the front surfaces (ice making surfaces) of the ice making plates or rear surfaces thereof. Reference may be made to, for example, Japanese Utility Model Application Laid-Open No. 63-66775.
As a water sprinkling apparatus of the type mentioned above, there is known heretofore such structure and configuration as shown in FIGS. 7, 8 and 9 of the accompanying drawings. Referring to FIG. 7 which shows schematically a cross section of the conventional water sprinkling apparatus, a sprinkler body 5 is formed in a substantially uniform thickness through an extrusion molding process, wherein an icing water flow passage 1 of a relatively large volume is defined above a deicing water flow passage 3 of a relatively small volume. Linear arrays of water strewing holes 1a and 1b are formed in juxtaposition in the bottom wall of the icing water flow passage 1. Similarly, a linear array of deicing water strewing holes 3a is formed in the bottom wall of the deicing water flow passage 3. The water strewing holes 1a, 1b and 3a are formed by using a drill or the like tool, and are clearly shown in FIG. 8.
The sprinkler body 5 of the water sprinkling apparatus which includes the icing water flow passage 1 and the deicing water flow passage 3 is obtained by cutting a corresponding extrusion product in a predetermined length. A plug 7 is mounted on a distal end of the sprinkler body 5 while a water supply connector 9 is fixed to the other end portion of the sprinkler body 5. The connector 9 is provided with an icing water supply port 9a and a deicing water supply port 9b which are in fluid communication with the icing water flow passage 1 and the deicing water flow passage 3, respectively. The plug 7 and the water supply connector 9 are conventionally made of a synthetic resin. It will now be understood that a water sprinkling apparatus 10 for an ice making machine is constituted by the sprinkler body 5, the plug 7 and the water supply connector 9 attached to the sprinkler body 5.
In a water sprinkling apparatus for an ice making machine in which a plurality of water sprinkling apparatuses 10 are employed in correspondence to plural pairs of ice making plates, an icing water supply joint 11 and a deicing water supply joint 12 are used to interconnect the icing water supply ports 9a and the deicing water supply ports 9b of the connectors 9, respectively, as shown in FIG. 9.
In the above-mentioned conventional water sprinkling apparatuses for ice making machines, the sprinkler body 5 is manufactured in an integral structure by an extrusion molding with a uniform wall thickness. As a result of this, the bottom wall of the sprinkler body 5 is of a same thickness as the other walls and is ratter thin. Accordingly, water streams that jet from the sprinkler body 5 through the strewing holes 1a, 1b and 3a, mechanically pierced through relatively thin bottom walls, tend to be inclined toward the direction in which water flows through the passage defined within the sprinkler body 5, giving rise to a problem that ice pellets or cubes being formed are susceptible to deformations.
Further, because the conventional water sprinkling apparatus for an ice making machine is constituted by assembling a variety of individual parts, substantial amounts of time are required for machining and the assembling operations. Besides, the structure is likely to be complicated. These problems become more serious when a large number of the sprinkler bodies are to be interconnected. Upon assembling the individual parts, precautions have to be taken for preventing water leakage. Also, after assembly, a test for detecting presence or absence of water leakage will have to be performed (with unsatisfactory products being discarded). As is apparent from the above, time consuming and troublesome processes are involved in manufacturing the conventional water sprinkling apparatus for an ice making machine.